Do you love to make your daily cup of espresso from Breville Barista Express Machine?
However, some people may face some pressure problems while pulling an espresso shot from this machine.
I also came across this problem one day while handling this coffee machine at my friend’s house.
After that I have researched for the possible causes and their solutions online.
And here is what I found after few days of detailed research.
If your Breville Barista Express is not generating enough pressure, it can be due to the coffee grounds that are not finely grounded.
It can also be attributed to the lack of proper tamping procedure.
Another possible reason can be addition of too little coffee in the machine grinder.
These pressure problems in the machine can also occur if the pump is clogged with debris.
In this article, I am specifically going to talk about various Breville Barista Express pressure problems.
Don’t worry, I am also going to provide few easy solutions to fix these high pressure, low pressure or no pressure problems related to Breville coffee machines.
So, without much delay, let’s start.
Table of Contents
- 3 Reasons Why Does My Breville Barista Express Have No Pressure?
- 2 Main Reasons of Too High Pressure in Breville Barista Express
- 4 Steps to Test the Pressure on a Breville Barista Express Machine
- How Many Bars of Pressure are in Breville Barista Express?
- 5 Main Solutions to Fix the No Pressure or Low-Pressure Issue in Breville Barista Express
- 4 Simple Tips to Prevent High Pressure in Breville Barista Express
- What To Do When a Breville Barista Express’s Pressure Gauge is Not Working?
3 Reasons Why Does My Breville Barista Express Have No Pressure?
There are 3 main reasons why there is low to no pressure in your Breville Barista Express machine which are as follows.
Reason 1: Pressure Gauge Malfunction
If you have been using the coffee machine for a long time, the pressure gauge is going to wear out or damage at some point of time.
In this case, you will need to replace the worn out or broken pressure gauge to fix the low or no pressure in your Breville coffee machine.
Reason 2: Broken Rubber Gasket
There are rubber gaskets inside the machine that keep the internal components sealed and airtight.
After heavy usage of few months, it can happen that the rubber gasket could break down.
This can happen due to the accumulation of oil from the coffee grounds and calcium deposition.
As a result, the Barista Express will not be able to generate enough pressure and may cause leakage.
Reason 3: Use of Tap Water
If you add tap water to your coffee machine, the minerals and salts will deposit and clog the water pipe.
After this, water will not flow properly and it will cause pressure problems for sure.
These are the possible reasons why your Breville Barista Express Machine is not producing enough pressure.
2 Main Reasons of Too High Pressure in Breville Barista Express
If the pressure is extremely high in your Breville Barista Express machine, then there are two possible reasons for the same.
1. Use of Excess Coffee Grounds
The first reason is mainly related to the use of excessive coffee grounds in your machine.
Even if you use too fine coffee, then also this problem can happen.
The machine sometimes exerts extra force to pass water through the coffee grounds.
This happens when coffee grounds are too fine or you are using too much coffee grounds.
2. Pressure Regulator Problem
The second reason is related to improper functioning of pressure regulator of the machine.
Sometimes, the pressure regulator does not work properly.
The pressure regulator is responsible for regulating the pressure within the machine.
The faulty or broken regulator will result in too high pressure.
4 Steps to Test the Pressure on a Breville Barista Express Machine
For testing pressure level of your Breville Barista Express, follow these steps:
1. Get a rubber cleaning disk and insert it in the portafilter.
2. Fill the water tank of the machine.
You don’t need to add coffee beans in this process.
3. Next, select the 1-cup button program.
4. While you are pulling the shot, look at the pressure gauge to check if it is 9 bars or not.
If the needle is pointing at 9 bars, this means the pressure gauge is working perfectly.
Watch the following video to understand how to do it at your home.
How Many Bars of Pressure are in Breville Barista Express?
Breville Barista Express has actually 15 bars of pressure.
15 bars of pressure mean that the pressure of water is made 15 bars when it starts moving into the machine.
It becomes 8 to 10 bars when it reaches your coffee cup.
8 to 10 bars is considered to be the standard pressure for the best coffee in the espresso makers.
Pressure is important in such espresso machines to make coffee by quickly extracting a shot in 30 seconds.
High pressure means your coffee is ready in less time, while low pressure means it will take longer to extract an espresso shot.
Thus, time and pressure go hand-in-hand when making coffee from Breville Barista Express machine.
Recommended Articles for You:
4 Reasons that Cause Program Button Problems in Breville Barista Express
6 Reasons that Cause Water Leakage Problem in Breville Barista Express
3 Important Grind Settings to Follow for Breville Barista Express
5 Main Solutions to Fix the No Pressure or Low-Pressure Issue in Breville Barista Express
Following are my 5 solutions that you can use to fix no or low-pressure issue in your Breville Barista Express.
Solution 1: Repair Faulty Pressure Gauge
If there is a faulty pressure gauge, you can get it repaired at an authorised shop.
It’s easy to fix a faulty gauge rather than replacing it with a new one.
Solution 2: Repair or Replace Worn out Rubber Gasket
If the gasket of your machine is broken, it will not reach the right pressure level.
Also, there will be leakage each time you brew coffee.
To remove this problem, you can either repair the seal or replace the old worn out rubber gasket.
Solution 3: Descale Your Machine Thoroughly
Clogged water lines also prevent the Breville Barista coffee machine from reaching high pressure.
If you don’t clean or descale your machine on a regular basis, then coffee residue and other debris particles can get accumulated inside the water pipes and other components.
To prevent this clogging issue, you need to carry out a thorough descaling procedure.
Only after that the internal clogging problem will be solved and there will be no pressure problems in your machine.
Solution 4: Use Sufficient Coffee Grounds
When you use too much or too low coffee grounds in the grinder of the machine, then there are high chances of getting low or high pressure.
Also, if you use too much coarse coffee, then also, then could high pressure problems.
To solve this problem, you need to grind your coffee beans finely to generate enough pressure.
And also make sure you are adding enough or right amount of coffee grounds to the grinder.
Solution 5: Tamp Coffee Grounds Properly
Sometimes due to lack of proper tamping process, there could be pressure related problems in your Breville machine.
Therefore, always tamp the coffee grounds appropriately and distribute them evenly.
This will prevent too low or too high pressure in the machine.
I am sure when you try out these solutions, then they will help you fix the low-pressure, no pressure or high pressure problems of Breville Barista Express machine.
4 Simple Tips to Prevent High Pressure in Breville Barista Express
Follow these 4 tips to fix the high-pressure issue in Breville Barista Express:
Tip 1: Use coarse coffee grounds, so water can easily flow through during extraction.
This will help reduce the high pressure problem.
Tip 2: Reduce the amount of coffee grounds you use for making your coffee.
This will also immensely reduce the pressure.
Tip 3: Don’t compress the coffee grounds too much.
This will make it easy for water to flow and thus, reduce pressure.
Tip 4: You can replace the pressure regulator of the machine.
If the regulator is faulty; it will result in inconsistent pressure bursts.
These fixes will help you solve this issue.
What To Do When a Breville Barista Express’s Pressure Gauge is Not Working?
You can replace the pressure gauge if it is not working properly.
Use a screwdriver to loosen the nuts and remove the gauge.
You can replace it with a new one.
I recommend to check out the following video tutorial to understand the process of fixing or repairing the pressure gauge of your Breville coffee machine.
References:
https://kitchenseer.com/why-is-espresso-machine-not-building-pressure/
https://www.thecoffeearound.com/why-does-my-breville-espresso-machine-not-build-pressure/
https://versus.com/en/breville-barista-express/pressure-gauge